i never ​knew you

I Never Knew You21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matt. 7:21-23 NKJV).

The last two series of verses before these verses have been about contrast and comparison, two things that are different and how they differ. In 7:13-14 there are the narrow way and the broad way, and in 7:15-20 there are the wolves and the sheep. Our choices determine our fruits, and our true nature reveals itself.

Jesus speaks of those who call Him, “Lord,” but whose lives do not show evidence of His Lordship. He contrasts those who are His in name versus those who are His in fact. Jesus has spent much of the Sermon on the Mount criticizing the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. That He now criticizes those who are hypocritical towards Him is not surprising. To acknowledge someone as lord and master is to live under the rules of their house. The Pharisees fulfilled their duty as they saw it, and they obeyed the letter of the Law. If we only obey commands, we are no better. To be His, we live in relationship with the Master, as disciple to teacher.

Jesus has shown us our Father in heaven (John 14:7-11), and this makes Him our brother. Yet, He is one with the Father, and He desires that we all be one with Him and the Father (John 17:20-23). Indeed, He is our brother (Matt. 12:48-50), as well as our Lord, and also our mediator and advocate. He is also the foundation of the house that is our Father’s, and we must rest on that order to be in His house. When we are of His house, our actions (fruit) will confirm this.

Doing the works that Christ encouraged of His disciples is not evidence of being His. There are examples of those who displayed the gifts of prophesy and healing but who were not, in the end, willing to submit to the King. Balaam prophesied (Num. 22-24), as did Saul (1 Sam. 19:24). Before Judas went astray, he had all of the power for healing and casting out demons that Jesus gave to His disciples. Jesus sees us not for what we have done, even for miracles done in His name, but for who we are and whose we are. If we give nominal obedience to Him as the Pharisees gave to God, we are not His but answer to another as lord. Our innermost allegiance lies elsewhere.

Jesus will say to those who have not been His, “I never knew you.” That is, the ones who never gave Jesus ownership of their lives have never been His, and will not be His when the fruit that comes forth from them is sour. Those who do not give of themselves completely are withholding what He desires most, the relationship of agape love. How can He call anyone His own when they do not know Him? His mercy and grace may extend to all in order that none be lost. That is not our decision. He makes the sun to rise on us even on those days that we choose to be farthest from Him. He has told us not to judge (Matt. 7:1), and as His children, as those who call Him, Lord, we see His judgment and acknowledge that He is just.

He speaks of those who practice lawlessness. “Lawlessness” is Strong’s G458, anomia, which literally means “no law.” The term is unambiguous. Those who practice lawlessness are not obedient to the Lord who created the world and its inhabitants. The act of Creation requires order. Anyone who has stacked blocks understands. There must be a firm and straight foundation. Every block rests upon another, and they are interlaced, interconnected, to give strength and stability. No piece is more important than another.

Such are the fundamental laws of our existence. Newton’s laws and all that we see in our physical world are effects. We find that all of nature is interconnected by laws we do not understand. We make a change in one place “to make it better” (at least, in our eyes) and see ripple effects through other parts of nature. Looking at our efforts in the sciences, we seem less interested in understanding the world and adapting ourselves to it than adapting the world to our ideas of how the world should work.

​ Whether we talk about the damage we have done to the environment, or the damage we do to other people, or the damage we are doing to our own health, we appear to be better at destruction than construction. A basic truth is that we must understand how something works before we begin to fix it. Next article